bootbags Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 We have advertised our Hymer 504 on this website. It is in lovely condition and we feel sure it will find a good home. But, we took it for a habitation check a few days ago and received a call yesterday to say that the control panel was showing the battery 100% but that there were no amps? It is an 80AmpHr Gel Battery, the van was 1st registered Jan 2005 and there are 13K+ miles. It is used infrequently but 'exercised' every 3 weeks or so. What is the life of a Gel Battery? We have been quoted in excess of £200 for a replacement or £65 for a normal leisure battery. We would not wish to downgrade to the cheaper model. Is this a fair price to pay. Thank You to anyone who is able to assist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 The life of a gel battery tends to be shorter so it could well be at the end of it's life. The battery may not be faulty, there is a known glitch on the on Hymer control panels where they can get out of sink with the charger resulting in incorrect readings & sometimes not charging the battery. To reset you have to fully discharge the battery (a bit drastic) until it is completely flat & allow it to fully recharge, once recharged the panel should be back to normal. £200 for a gel battery is the price Hymer charge for fitting an additional battery, for a replacement a bit steep you should be able to get one for around a 100 quid or you can fit an AMG battery again around a 100 quid that would be the way to go if you were keeping the van. If the battery is in an outside locker you could fit a standard battery but remember to change the switch over on the charger for the correct charging characteristics. If it is a typical Hymer installation under the passenger seat stick with a Gel or AMG battery as they are fully sealed. The reason Hymer & other German manufactures fit Gel batteries is because it is a legal requirement for Motorhomes in Germany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnP Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 Yes £200 is about right for a gell type, fitted I have just purchased a new Hymer and will be removing the gell battery and replacing with two new conventional lead acid batteries which I purchased three months ago. If you change the battery type from gell to wet type there is a small slide switch on the Electrobloc which has to be changed over to give a different charging regime for the different types of battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 Hi John, I assume your van is a Hymer Tramp, most Tramps the batteries are under the seats Mine is a 654 SL with one battery under each seat. If this is the case I would strongly advise against fitting conventional batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootbags Posted August 7, 2009 Author Share Posted August 7, 2009 lennyhb - 2009-08-07 9:10 AM The life of a gel battery tends to be shorter so it could well be at the end of it's life. The battery may not be faulty, there is a known glitch on the on Hymer control panels where they can get out of sink with the charger resulting in incorrect readings & sometimes not charging the battery. To reset you have to fully discharge the battery (a bit drastic) until it is completely flat & allow it to fully recharge, once recharged the panel should be back to normal. £200 for a gel battery is the price Hymer charge for fitting an additional battery, for a replacement a bit steep you should be able to get one for around a 100 quid or you can fit an AMG battery again around a 100 quid that would be the way to go if you were keeping the van. If the battery is in an outside locker you could fit a standard battery but remember to change the switch over on the charger for the correct charging characteristics. If it is a typical Hymer installation under the passenger seat stick with a Gel or AMG battery as they are fully sealed. The reason Hymer & other German manufactures fit Gel batteries is because it is a legal requirement for Motorhomes in Germany. Thank you so much for your input and advice. We are going to speak to the place where habitation check being done this morning so will speak to them about following your comments. They are not Hymer agents but seem highly thought of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootbags Posted August 7, 2009 Author Share Posted August 7, 2009 JohnP - 2009-08-07 9:11 AM Yes £200 is about right for a gell type, fitted I have just purchased a new Hymer and will be removing the gell battery and replacing with two new conventional lead acid batteries which I purchased three months ago. If you change the battery type from gell to wet type there is a small slide switch on the Electrobloc which has to be changed over to give a different charging regime for the different types of battery. Thank you very much for your advice, will be making a decision this am based on the feedback I have received and hopefully get the van up and ready to go before she (reluctantly) goes to a new owner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnP Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 Hello Lenny yes it's a Tramp on a Ford Transit. The batteries are completely sealed with no breather pipe so assume they will be Ok. The Ford engine battery is under the drivers seat and one leisure battery will sit alongside this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 lennyhb - 2009-08-07 9:10 AM The reason Hymer & other German manufactures fit Gel batteries is because it is a legal requirement for Motorhomes in Germany. I've always believed that the reasons gel 'habitation' batteries are commonly used in motorhomes are because they are frost-proof and require no maintenance or ventilation, and can thus be located in any position the motorhome manufacturer likes to bloody-mindedly choose (eg. hidden under cab seats). My German-specification Ford-based Hobby has a gel habitation battery buried beneath one cab-seat swivel mechanism and a wet 'vehicle' battery (just as inaccessibly located!) beneath the other. Can you provide more information, please, on the German legal requirement for gel batteries to be fitted in motorhomes built in that country? If there is such a requirement, then Eura Mobil seems to be ignoring it, as (other than Ford-based Profila designs) all Eura Mobil models appear to have 'wet' habitation batteries as standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted August 8, 2009 Share Posted August 8, 2009 I can not remember where I got the info from but I do remember when I brought a caravan in Germany some years ago the dealer suggested I brought my own battery as he could only supply a Gel one legally. I believe the requirement is only for the habitation battery & it may not be the same for Motorhomes. As every German van even the cheapest & most basic have a Gel battery I wouldn't have thought a manufacture would fit an item that is 2/3 times the price if they did not have to. The thought of a bucket of liquid sulphuric acid sitting under by seat does not appeal if I had a Tranie I think I would change the battery for an AMG one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 lennyhb I've browsed through my advertising brochures that relate to German motorhomes and the norm is for the habitation battery to be of gel type. There were two exceptions. Knaus (2001 brochure) fitted 'wet' batteries to double-floor models and gel otherwise, and Eura Mobil (2008 brochure) seemed to have the same policy. It may be that there is a long-standing German regulation demanding that all German-built leisure vehicles (or perhaps all leisure vehicles marketed in Germany) must have gel habitation batteries when the battery is mounted 'naked' within the vehicle's living area (eg. below a cab seat), but can have non-gel batteries when the battery is housed in a purpose-made enclosure sealed from the living area (eg. in an exterior locker). Ford Transits have had an under-seat 'vehicle' battery since the introduction of the Mk 6 in 2000. I can't say this concerns me, as (in my 2005 Mk 6 Transit's case) the battery is properly vented to the vehicle's exterior and shielded to guard against accidental short-circuiting. Generally speaking, things are less rosy, as the tendency to fit swivels to motorcaravan cab seats means there will be many, many Transit-based motorhomes that require the swivel-mechanism + seat to be removed before the battery's electrolyte can be checked. And the chances of this happening when the motorhome is serviced are near as dammit nil. But that's really the motorhome converters' fault, not Ford's. (It may well be that Ford now fit a maintenance-free vehicle battery as this would make good sense. Perhaps JohnP will know?) There seem to be differences of opinion about the potential life-span of different battery types. Squadron Marine & Recreation markets wet (non-sealed and sealed), AGM and gel batteries. Compared to a conventional wet battery, Squadron's brochure quotes the anticipated service life of an AGM battery as at least times-3, and of a gel battery as at least times-4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnP Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Derek I will let you know when I remove the seats this week to fit leisure battery. and connect up solar panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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